First Impressions (Round Two!)

The Kawai Complex Guide to Manors and Hostel Behavior Episode 1: Dude wants to live alone (his parents moved for work) with the girl of his dreams. He’s living in a complex, so it’s not really alone, but he is with the girl of his dreams…except she’s not as sweet. We have some other characters thrown in, the usual masochistic pervert, the drunk chick with big boobs, and the granny-like landlady. Usually I love trope-tastic anime but at first, I just wasn’t feeling it. However, by the end of the episode I started feeling the humor a bit better.

Baby Steps Episode 1: You all know how much I love sports anime so of course I had to give this one a try. This guy’s hair is so distracting! He reminds me of a rooster. Straight-A OCD kid starts playing tennis to get some exercise…and who is at this tennis club but the cutest girl in his grade! This anime doesn’t have the “sports anime” feel I love so much, but I do want to see more of this mysterious second-year that we glimpse at the end of the episode.

Dai-Shogun Episode 1: When I first read the description, I thought this would be awesome. Everything I saw on twitter, however, pretty much said it was a steaming pile of crap. There is a quite obvious lack of animation (though they did make the effort to animate boob bounce–priorities, I guess). Though they aren’t my preference, scantily-clad women with huge boobs don’t bother me…but at least give me actual animation as a trade off! I felt like I was watching characters pasted on popsicle sticks in front of a background…that devolved into mech hentai? By the end, all I could think was, “This makes Nobunaga the Fool look like a Miyazaki.”

Nanana’s Buried Treasure Episode 1: Nothing really grabbed me in this first episode but it wasn’t awful, either. I’ll see how the second episode goes; I think there’s potential.

No Game No Life Episode 1: At first I thought, oh gee, a brother and cute little sister, bo-ring. Then we hit the part about how life is such a hard game because there are no rules, no parameters, so on and so forth and I was sucked it. Everything was making so much sense! I don’t even like games and I’m not particularly fond of rules, but hey, this really makes sense! I loved the end of the episode because I was just thinking the same thing about the plot–usually the goal is to find a way home, but why would they? I liked this show a lot better than I expected.

Chaika – the Coffin Princess Episode 1: Things exploded from the start, which I liked, but overall I didn’t find it that interesting. A lot of tweeters were really excited about this episode–which is why I watched in the first place; originally the series wasn’t even on my radar. It’s lamost as if I didn’t watch the same episode they did, but I’ll give it another try.

Mekakucity Actors Episode 1: Better than I expected, though I am getting tired of NEETs. Back in “Welcome to the NHK” I thought it was fascinating but now I’m kinda NEET-ed out.

Soul Eater Not! Episode 1: I was a fan of the first/original Soul Eater so I wanted to give this a try. “It tastes weird! It’s the taste of America!” This spring season seems really full of cute girls, boobs, and schools (maybe the winter season was too & I just didn’t notice?) and Soul Eater Not! is part of that girls-boob-school group. However I hope (and believe) it’ll rise above and become something more.

Ping Pong Episode 1: Strangely addictive! During the first five minutes or so all I could think was, “I’m so tired of first episodes! I want to get *involved* in something, no more first episodes!” but this was a great first episode to end my First Impressions. It left me intrigued and refreshed and looking forward to episode two.